Factual error: In one scene supposedly set in the late '70s (Andy was about to get/just got "Taxi"), Andy is playing Ms. Pac Man. I may be wrong here, but didn't Ms. Pac-Man come out in 1982 or 1983? (00:29:30)
Factual error: In George Shapiro's office, the picture of Bob Newhart also includes Mary Frann, who didn't co-star with Bob until the mid 80's.
Factual error: Lorne Michaels didn't orchestrate the phone-in poll that banned Andy from SNL, as he wasn't SNL producer from 1980-85. Short-term SNL producer Dick Ebersol was behind it.
Factual error: When Andy is in the club with his future manager in the audience, he tells the crowd (in his Foreign Man persona) that he is going to imitate President Carter. After hooking up with his manager, he gets a gig on the first episode of Saturday Night Live, which debuted in 1975. Jimmy Carter wasn't President until 1976. (00:10:30)
Factual error: When Andy first appears on SNL, the announcer says "Welcome back to Saturday Night Live." It wasn't called Saturday Night Live when it first started.
Factual error: Although tall glasses of milk look better, the milk that was given to the audience members of the Carnegie Hall performance came in 1/2-pint paper cartons.
Factual error: In the film, Andy plans the Carnegie Hall gig after learning he has cancer. The actual concert took place in 1979, when Kaufman's popularity was at its highest, not near the end of his life and career (1983-84). (Regardless of the writers' intent when writing the script for this film, it is still a factual error.)
Factual error: In the movie when Andy reads the paper saying he got voted off Saturday Night Live, he remarks "This is bad, I only got 28%." In reality the poll was much closer, with about 46% voting to keep him vs. 54% to dump.
Factual error: David Letterman didn't wear glasses on TV in the early '80s.
Factual error: Pyro effects weren't used in pro wrestling until the late 80's. The Lawler/Kaufman match took place around 1983. (01:09:25)
Factual error: On the set of Taxi when Tony Clifton is fired, which took place around 1978, one of the chopped vehicles shown on the set is a mid-1990s Chevy Caprice.
Factual error: Andy didn't meet his girlfriend Lynn when he was wrestling women on the Merv Griffin show. They actually met in 1981-82, when his "wrestling career" was dying down (incidentally, if you rent the movie "My Breakfast With Blassie", you actually see Andy meeting, and hitting on, Lynn for the first time. They had never met prior to the filming of their improvised scene. It's pretty funny-rent it!)
Answer: We're supposed to wonder if Andy didn't really fake his own death.
Xofer